'Ocean of Wisdom' Opens Hearts - Connects With 14,000 At Bell Center

Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 4 October 2009 (By Max Harrold, The Gazette) - Know thyself and have an open heart toward others.

That was the simple yet potent message delivered to Montrealers yesterday by the Dalai Lama, who has come to personify laid-back cool among religious leaders.

The 74-year-old Buddhist monk and exiled leader of Tibet's 6 million people used little more than his famously down-to-Earth appeal in his talk about the power of compassion to more than 14,000 people at the Bell Centre.

'I speak to you not as a Buddhist, nor as a Tibetan, but as a human being to other humans,' said the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner who was on his third Canadian stop after Vancouver and Calgary.

'My parents were illiterate peasants but they were very honourable and kind,' he said, adding that a parent's love can seed compassionate potential in all people.